“Conviction” (A Nickell-odeon Review)

November 12, 2010

In
Conviction
Hilary Swank delivers another excellent performance, this time as Betty Anne Waters, sister of Kenny Waters, who is serving a life sentence for the brutal, stabbing murder of a Massachusetts woman in 1980. The film is Tony Goldwyn's adaptation of the real-life chronicle of Betty Ann's relentless pursuit of college and law school degrees, becoming her brother's attorney on a crusade to overturn what she believes in his wrongful conviction.

The film dramatizes one of many cases of wrongful conviction overturned through the efforts of the Innocence Project (see
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Kenny_Waters.php
). Ultimately, evidence in the case—notably blood believed to be from the perpetrator—was submitted to a private lab whose DNA tests excluded Waters. Subsequently, the state police crime laboratory verified the results, and Waters' conviction was vacated.

(DNA testing—the analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid, the carrier of genetic information—has been decisive in both convicting numerous felons and exonerating innocent persons. Although DNA was discovered in 1911, only much later was it found that portions of certain genes' DNA structure are unique to each person. In 1985, English researchers developed a process to isolate and read the DNA markers, and the following year DNA technology cleared a teenager who had been accused of murder. [See my
Crime Science
, co-authored with John F. Fischer, 1999, 201-205].)

Conviction
ends with Waters' release after almost eighteen years of wrongful incarceration, but there is a tragic irony to the case. Only six months after his release, Kenny died from a freak accident (falling fifteen feet from a stone wall and hitting his head). His sister, however, noted that he died a free man and he had enjoyed every moment of his liberty.

Rating: Three wooden nickels (out of four)

Comments:

#1 John (Guest) on Sunday November 14, 2010 at 1:30pm

love the way you describe this.
mine is crapier

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Joe Nickell, Ph.D., is Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and "Investigative Files" Columnist for Skeptical Inquirer. A former stage magician, private investigator, and teacher, he is author of numerous books, including Inquest on the Shroud of Turin (1998), Pen, Ink and Evidence (2003), Unsolved History (2005) and Adventures in Paranormal Investigation (2007). He has appeared in many television documentaries and has been profiled in The New Yorker and on NBC's Today Show. His personal website is at joenickell.com.